Sandra Bullock Biography - Sandra Bullock Childhood, Sandra Bullock Profile

Born on: July 26, 1964

Born in: Arlington, Virginia

Nationality: American

Education: Bachelor’s Degree from East Carolina University

Career: Actress

Sandra Bullock is a popular American actress, who has proved her acting mettle via a number of smash hits, such as Speed, While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality, and Crash. Apart from acting in films, the actress runs her own production company and has even ventured into the field of film making. Climbing the ladder of success, she was ranked as one of the richest female celebrities recently.

Childhood & Early Years

Sandra Bullock was born as ‘Sandra Annette Bullock’ on 26^th July 1964, in Arlington, Virginia. Her father, John W Bullock was a Pentagon contractor, executive and part-time vocal coach from Alabama, while her mother, Helga D. Meyer was a German opera singer. Bullock’s maternal grandmother was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. Bullock lived in Nuremberg till the age of twelve, where she sang in opera’s children’s choir at the Staatstheater Nuremberg. She even traveled frequently with her mother on her opera tours.

Bullock lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She even studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, often participating in her mother’s opera productions. Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School, where she participated in school theater productions and dated a football player. After her graduation in 1982, she enrolled at the East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. By this time, she worked as a restaurant waitress to support herself. However, she left school in her final year to pursue acting career.

Bullock went to Manhattan and took a number of auditions here, while she supported herself with a number of odd jobs, like those of a bartender, cocktail waitress, coat checker, etc. Bullock later completed her education and was awarded bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University. The actress has both American as well as German nationality. As far as her lingual skills are concerned, she is fluent in German but prefers to speak English.

Breakthrough in Films

In New York, Bullock attended acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse and appeared in several student films and even a play named ‘No Time Flat’. After being impressed with her performance in the play, Director Alan J. Levi offered her a role in TV movie, Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. After this, she stayed in California, Los Angeles and appeared in several small roles in many independent films. In 1990, she was cast in the lead role of NBC’s television version of the film Working Girls. After this, she was seen in a series of films such as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993) and Fire on the Amazon.

Shot to Fame

Bullock caught attention of everyone with her performance in the science-fiction/action movie, Demolition Man (1993), starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Following this, she appeared in the movie Speed in 1994. With the success of this film, she never looked back and gave a number of hits, one after another. Some of her successful films included While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice. Owing to the steep rise in her career graph, Bullock received 11 million dollars for Speed 2 and 17.5 million dollars for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous.

In 1996 and 1999, Bullock was ranked amongst People magazine's ‘50 Most Beautiful People in the World’ and was also included in Empire magazine's ‘Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time’ list. In 2002, she was awarded Raul Julia Award for Excellence, for her efforts in expanding career openings for Hispanic talent in the media and entertainment industry, as the executive producer of the sitcom, ‘The George Lopez Show’. In 2004, she received world wide acclaim for her role in Crash. Eventually, on March 24, 2005, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In January 2007, Bullock was named the ‘14th richest woman’ in entertainment, with a net worth of $85 million, by Forbes magazine.

As an Entrepreneur

Apart from being a successful actress, Sandra bullock also founded her own production company ‘Fortis Films’. Her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado is the president of the company, while her father, John Bullock is the CEO. Being the executive producer of sitcom, ‘George Lopez’, she garnered a lucrative syndication deal, bagging some $10 million. Her next movie, All About Steve will be produced by her own production house. Meanwhile, she tends to her Austin restaurant, Bess Bistro and its first merchandising tie-in, a line of organic candles.

Personal Life

Sandra Bullock dated a number of people before making the right choice. This list includes Troy Aikman, ‘Blues’ guitarist Guy Forsythe, ‘Austin’ musician Bob Schneider (for two years) and film co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey and Bullock met each other while filming A Time to Kill and became friends, even dating for a while. However, while shooting for the film Love Potion No.9, Bullock met actor Tate Donovan and was supposedly engaged to him. Sadly, the relationship couldn’t see the day of the light and ended after four years.

On July 16, 2005, Bullock married motorcycle builder and ‘Monster Garage’ host Jesse James. With this, she became a stepmother to Chandler, Jesse Jr., and Sunny, along with a godson. On December 20, 2000, Bullock survived the crash of a chartered business jet at Jackson Hole Airport. She has donated $1 million twice to the American Red Cross - first, to its Liberty Disaster Relief Fund and four years later, for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis. In November 2006, Bullock inaugurated her first restaurant, Bess in Austin, Texas.

Awards & Nominations

1994 - Nominated for Razzie Awards Worst Actress for Demolition Man

1995 - Won Saturn Awards Best Actress for Speed, Golden Apple Female Star of the Year, Blimp Award Favorite Movie Actress for Speed, MTV Movie Awards Best Female Performance for Speed, MTV Movie Awards Best On-Screen Duo for Speed, MTV Movie Awards Most Desirable Female for Speed and Nominated for MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss for Speed and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for While You Were Sleeping

1996 - Nominated American Comedy Awards Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) for While You Were Sleeping

1996 - Nominated for Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for While You Were Sleeping

1996 - Nominated for MTV Movie Awards Best Female Performance for While You Were Sleeping, MTV Movie Awards Most Desirable Female for While You Were Sleeping, MTV Movie Awards Most Desirable Female for The Net and won People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress

1997 - Won Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress - Suspense for A Time To Kill, People’s Choice Awards Favorite Motion Picture Actress and nominated MTV Movie Awards Best Female Performance for A Time To Kill

1998 - Nominated for Razzie Awards Worst Actress for Speed 2: Cruise Control, Razzie Awards Worst Screen Couple for Speed 2: Cruise Control and Won People's Choice Awards Favorite Motion Picture Actress

1999 - Won Lone Star Film & Television Award Best Actress for Hope Floats, Teen Choice Awards Film - Choice Hissy Fit for Forces of Nature

2000 - Nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Miss Congeniality

2004 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for Crash

Filmography

1987 - Hangmen

1989 - Religion, Inc., Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the

Bionic Woman, Who Shot Patakango? , The Preppie Murder

1990 - Lucky/Chances

1992 - Who Do I Gotta Kill? , When the Party's Over, Love Potion No. 9

1993 - The Vanishing, The Thing Called Love, Demolition Man, Fire on the Amazon, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway

1994 - Speed

1995 - While You Were Sleeping, The Net